Exclusive: Another private high school launches multimillion-dollar renovation

Another Houston-area private high school has launched a multimillion-dollar capital campaign to fund an expansion.

St. Pius X High School, a co-ed private high school north of the 610 Loop and west of Interstate 45, launched a capital campaign to fund a $9.1 million building that will serve as the school's 27,000-square-foot Center for the Sciences and Media. The building should open in time for the upcoming fall semester, a spokesperson for St. Pius X told the Houston Business Journal. The institution still needs to raise $2.9 million to fully fund the development. The building broke ground in September.

"St. Pius X School Board authorized construction to begin in September 2015, as favorable short-term financing is now in place to cover anticipated construction expenses ahead of projected pledge payments," the spokesperson said.

The general contractor is Houston-based Stewart Builders. Houston's Turner Duran Architects LP is handling the architecture and interior design.

The facility is part of a broader, $13 million expansion that kicked off in 2009. Also part of the expansion was a $4.3 million facility that housed the school's program for students with learning disabilities, as well as renovations and expansions to the school's public spaces, administrative offices and west campus facilities. These developments have already been completed.

Also in the same vein as St. Pius X's expansion is the $20 million renovation that St. Agnes Academy launched in February. The campaign will fund a new auditorium and performance hall, student commons, a multipurpose studio and more. And St. John's School, a private K-12 school in River Oaks, finally revealed detailed plans for the 13-acre tract of land it bought nearly four years ago that formerly housed a longstanding Houston honky tonk.